Cheap NFC Google review stands from Amazon, AliExpress or Temu: are they worth it?

Three things, whatever the price:

• An NFC chip, often an NTAG213 or NTAG215, with 144 or 504 bytes of memory. A Google review link takes about fifty: both are more than enough.
• A printed QR code, for phones without NFC.
• A holder: acrylic, PVC, wood or metal, with or without a stand.

The chip has no battery and no connection: the phone powers it when it comes close, reads the address it holds and opens it. It stores no reviews and no data. The price gap between two stands therefore comes mostly from the finish, whether it's programmed for you, and what the link points to.

• Blank: the chip is empty, you write your link onto it. The printed QR code can't be changed: check what it contains.
• Programmed with your link: you provide it when ordering, and the stand opens your review form directly.
• Programmed with a service's address: the stand opens a site run by the seller, which forwards to your profile. You can sometimes change the destination, but the stand stops working if that service shuts down, changes address or starts charging.

The product page doesn't always say which. It's the first thing to check on arrival.

• Install a free NFC reading app, such as NFC Tools, on iPhone or Android.
• Read the chip: the app shows the stored address, and whether the chip is locked.
• Scan the QR code with the camera and compare: it should lead to the same place.
• Open the link: it must show the review form of YOUR business, ready to rate, not your profile in Maps or a seller's home page.
• Test with an iPhone and an Android, with the stand in its final spot.

If the chip is blank, or you want to replace a seller's link and it isn't locked:

• Get your Google Business Profile's review link: « Read reviews », then « Get more reviews », then « Copy ». Our Google review link generator checks it before you write it.
• In NFC Tools, on the write tab, add a URL record and paste the link.
• Start writing and hold the stand against the top of the phone until it confirms.
• Read the chip again, then open the link to check.

The printed QR code won't follow: if it led elsewhere, cover it, or print your own with the same generator.

An unlocked NFC chip can be rewritten with any phone and a free app. On a counter or a table, it can be changed by a prankster, or by a fraudster sending your customers to a fake site.

Writing apps offer to lock the chip. Locking is permanent: write and test the right link first, then lock. A chip locked by a seller on their service's address, on the other hand, can never be corrected by you.

• Metal blocks an ordinary chip: a stand on a stainless steel counter, or a chip stuck on a metal holder, needs a so-called anti-metal chip.
• Thickness reduces range: behind thick acrylic or a sleeve, the phone almost has to touch.
• The chip's position isn't always in the centre: a visible marker saves the customer from searching.
• The QR code must stay readable: big enough, sharp contrast, no glare. See our Google review QR code guide.

A well-checked, locked stand does its job: opening the review form. It does nothing else:

• it counts neither scans nor the reviews it brings;
• once locked, it can't be corrected if your profile changes;
• it offers an unhappy customer nothing but the public rating.

If those points matter to you, a Google review card that opens an editable page covers them, statistics and private message included, without ever taking away the customer's option to post. Otherwise, a cheap stand, checked and locked, is enough.